The Philippines is blessed with a very high biodiversity, including the plants living in its remaining forest cover. Trees alone comprise about 3500 species. Just to research on a species a day would take about 10 years to finish all of just the trees. Then there are still the shrubs, herbs, ferns etc. Through this blog we hope to introduce you to some important plants in the forest before they completely disappear because of habitat destruction.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

My Last View of the SM Baguio Pine Trees

There is not much pine trees in this Baguio picture, houses fill the mountain

The infamous SM pine trees

I was in Baguio last weekend and passed by SM. I took pictures of the famous pine trees to be cut. But I did not realize that it was actually their last day of existence before they were cut down for the mall extension. I figured at least I have a posterity pic of the now infamous pine trees. They are now immortal not only in my photo but also because of the deed everyone is sad about.

A day before they were cut down

But this fact is not only true in SM Baguio. The tree cuttings is only much celebrated because of the number of trees fell all at one time. But if you look at Baguio itself, it is now much different from the Baguio I saw when I was 8 years old, my first time to the city of pine trees. Then, Baguio still smelled of pine tree scent. Now 30 years after, Baguio is much changed because of congestion and industry. I could not discern the smell the pine trees anymore. In place of the many fallen pine trees and other tree species, I could see metal house roofs and concrete structures. I could estimate that was far more than the 170 SM Baguio obliterated. But these ones fell in silence. The demise of the pine trees, or even Baguio's original vegetation, is everyone elses and not an SM monopoly. SM has a big share of the blame right now but everyone who let it reach this state is responsible.

5 comments:

I feel bad for the pine trees. On the other hand, sir pat, can you identify this plant for me? -> Tungaw. Its fruit look like strawberries. We have lots of these plants on my gram's lot in the mountains of Cebu.

Very sad about the pine trees. Honestly, Baguio no longer holds any appeal for me. There was no decent urban planning involved. You used to smell the pine scent even at the start of the climb up the mountains. Now you can inhale as deeply as you want and any pine scent will probably just be faint or imaginary.

Subscribe To

Followers

About Me

Hi! My name is Patrick Gozon and I am a plant enthusiast. I did my graduate thesis on the use of Philippine native trees and shrubs in landscape architecture. I hope to share with you interesting facts I learned and collected about Philippine native flora.